Boston area highway blocked by protesters

BOSTON (AP) — Police have reopened all the Boston-area highway lanes that were blocked by activists protesting what they call “police and state violence against black people.”

State police shut down Interstate 93 north-bound at East Milton Square south of the city, and I-93 south at Mystic Avenue north of the city at the height of the morning commute Thursday, inconveniencing thousands of drivers.

The southbound lanes were reopened at about 8 a.m. and the northbound lanes at about 10 a.m.

State police say 23 protesters, some of whom chained themselves to concrete-filled barrels, had been arrested.

The Boston contingent of Black Lives Matter said in a statement that the protest was intended “to confront white complacency in the systemic oppression of black people in Boston.”